In recent years, the petroleum industry has invested heavily in the development of improved marine survey techniques and seismic data processing methods in order to increase the resolution and accuracy of seismic images of subterranean formations. Marine surveys illuminate a subterranean formation located beneath a body of water with acoustic energy produced by one or more submerged seismic sources. The acoustic energy travels down through the water and into the subterranean formation. At interfaces between different types of rock or sediment of the subterranean formation, a portion of the acoustic energy may be refracted, a portion may be transmitted, and a portion may be reflected back toward the subterranean formation surface and into the body of water. A typical marine survey is carried out with a survey vessel that passes over the illuminated subterranean formation while towing elongated cable-like structures called streamers. Some marine surveys utilize receivers attached to ocean bottom nodes or cables, either in conjunction with, or in lieu of, receivers on towed streamers. The streamers may be equipped with a number of collocated, dual pressure and particle motion sensors that detect pressure and particle motion wavefields, respectively, associated with the acoustic energy reflected back into the water from the subterranean formation. The pressure sensors generate seismic data that represents the pressure wavefield, and the particle motion sensors generate seismic data that represents the particle motion (e.g., particle displacement, particle velocity, or particle acceleration) wavefield. The survey vessel receives and records the seismic data generated by the sensors.
One aspect of marine survey seismic data collection is near real-time onboard quality control (“QC”). Onboard QC is often carried out on the survey vessel and may be used to evaluate noise content in seismic data collected during a marine survey. However, the capacity of typical onboard computational resources may be an order of magnitude less than the computational capacity of resources used to process the same set of seismic data onshore, and start-of-survey delays due to QC parameter testing are typically not permitted. As a result, noise-evaluation results produced in near real-time by onboard QC may be less accurate than results produced by onshore seismic data processing. The noise-evaluation results produced onboard may be used to adjust marine survey parameters, such as changing survey vessel speed, discarding seismic data, or scraping the streamers. Decisions to adjust survey parameters are typically taken on a short, fixed timescale according to the survey plan. Any decisions to adjust survey parameters or otherwise delay the survey based on unreliable noise-evaluation results may reduce survey efficiency, could further reduce the quality of the seismic data collected afterward, and potentially compromise crew safety. Those working in the petroleum industry continue to seek near real-time onboard QC methods and systems to efficiently and accurately evaluate the noise content in seismic data collected while conducting a marine survey.